The 40 Year Old Comic-Con Virgin.

(I have filed this one under the category ‘Creative and/or Inspiring Yodas’ even though Yoda wasn’t actually at Oz Comic-Con this year.)

At the start of the September school holidays Finn, Rory and I were very excited to attend Oz Comic-Con in Brisbane courtesy of Blue Planet PR. Thanks guys!

All three of us were Comic-Con noobs, though I’ve known about the original San Diego Comic-Con for years; I fell in love with every fan in San Diego in 2010 when they stood as one and delivered the Wrath of Khan to the intolerant arseholes of the Westboro Baptist Church who tried bringing their hate to geekdom’s biggest party. And they did it in the most hilariously perfect way!

A Trekkie is holding it… I died. Just one of many photos of the glorious counter protest. Source: Comics Alliance.

Fandoms contain some awesome people; smart, incredibly creative, a bit feisty and with a great sense of humour about themselves. And they know how to party; I’m in!

I’d prepped the boys since birth I’d felt they were ready, starting with carefully chosen 80s Astroboy, Back to the Future, and early Harry Potter. We moved on to Star Wars when Rory was nearly three, and the boys started building landspeeders out of Duplo and humming ‘The Imperial March’ whenever annoyed with something. We watched The Empire Strikes Back while hiding behind pillows on the couch; the boys burrowed into either side of me during the scary bits and when Vader cut off Luke’s hand there was immediate outrage.

“He can’t do that!

He can’t be Luke’s dad, he’s evil!

Mummy, he can’t freeze Luke in carbonite!”

They loved the third one as much as I still do, and Finn was super stoked that Mummy helped him be a Jedi for Halloween that year. I (grudgingly) also showed them the prequels, but thankfully they lost interest before Anakin went all Darthy and evil / limbs off / on fire. They both loved Darth Maul though, and Rory got a red light saber to duel Finn with. I remember once how he was explaining to my (less fangirly) sister Justine that he had Darth Maul’s light saber… she blinked, looked confused and said, “Huh? Daft mole?”

Sometimes I forget not everyone’s as geeky as I am, which is not even that much. I’m such a lightweight compared to some of the deadset legends we saw at Comic-Con!

I don’t even have to know the characters they’re cosplaying to know that these guys KICK so much ARSE.I would always choose to be Obi Wan if I could only manage the beard. Or tolerate the mullet.How the hell did this guy manage to get through the weapons check at the door?! Mind you every second person here had either a battleaxe, hammer, nunchakus or really stabby high heels on.

There were SO many more mindblowing costumes but unfortunately I couldn’t chase after and photograph them all. I’d thought about dressing up, as a Jedi with two Padawan, but the boys didn’t want to – I can wait. They did relent to having a photo taken with members of the 501st Legion, albeit warily.

Finn and Roars suited up with several other big kids including their heroes Mario and Luigi, and squared off against an enemy team including a zombie and a couple with cat ears. Finn has lasertagged twice in the past 3 months at birthday parties so proved himself a bit of a threat…

You go left I’ll go right!

… but it was Rory’s first time and he seemed a bit bewildered by all the running around and didn’t understand the key concepts of ‘aiming’, ‘firing’, and ‘taking cover’. He wandered around a bit, then stood by a barricade for a while.

The boys love swinging anything even vaguely weapon-like, especially if they can swing it at Mum.

Boys’ turn!

Chips.

The usual chip shop, but not the usual chip shop clientele. (I love Wonder Baby on the left!)

Mum’s turn; …Hey kids, the state finals of the Australian Championships of Cosplay are just around the corner, look at all those cool costumes! Don’t you want to go and see some real live Jedi? And robots? And all those guys from Inside Out? You loved that movie!

(The children): No thanks.

(The parent): Come on, it’ll be awesome! Pleeeeaaassseee…?

Mummy we’re tired…

Shit.

Ah, they did well. We had a great time! I think next year I might bring them to spend day 1 together, then come kidless on day 2 so I can geek out a bit more.

I chased up the cosplay competition the next day, and it was a whole bunch of awesome:

I also found our state grand finalist; Major Sam Cosplay of Brisbane, who created a vision of ‘La Carlotta’ from The Phantom of the Opera. As it turns out she went down to Sydney and won the whole damn thing! Fangirls and fanboys, may I present to you our inaugural Australian cosplay champion!

Wow. It belongs in a movie, doesn’t it? Well, all cosplayers are costume designers really. The home built stuff I mean, not the stuff I use from Spotlight. It’s just as much fun though, which I suppose is why it has ‘play’ in the name!

– Michelle

Update 23 March 2016:

HOLY SHIT Major Sam is the World Cosplay Champion!! She entered as Julietta Necromancer, a character by indie Japanese illustrator Sakizo, at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) and today, up against mindblowing competition from all around the world, won the whole bloody thing.

Well done Major Sam, what a legend!! This year’s Australian Championships of Cosplay kicks off again in Perth on the first weekend of April and she’s planning to defend her title, so follow her on Facebook and/or keep up with her on Instagram to see just what the hell she’s going to do next.